Megalonychidae

Hoffmann- Two -toed sloth ( Choloepus hoffmanni )

• America

The Megalonychidae are a mammalian family from the group of sloths ( Folivora ). They include the still living two -toed sloth ( Choloepus ), some extinct ground sloths as Megalonyx and some sloths, who have lived on the West Indies and have become extinct only few thousand years ago.

General

The individual sloth families are not divided according to the way of life ( tree or ground -dwelling ), but according to morphological aspects such as the shape of the head and teeth and the number of claws. The Megalonychidae a tendency to reduce the number of claws can recognize. So Megalonyx had two large and one small claw, while today's Two -toed sloth bear only two claws (as opposed to the three -toed animals).

The earliest remains of the family of Megalonychidae date from the early Oligocene ( about 35 million years ago ) and was found in Patagonia. With the emergence of the land bridge of Panama million years ago, about 3 to 2.5, the animals began to migrate north, a way Nothrotheriops shastensis, even reached the Yukon River in Canada. Over time, the members of the family got bigger, the largest animals were those of the genus Megalonyx the Pleistocene.

System

In addition to the two-toed animals, the only surviving members of this family, numerous fossil genera of Megalonychidae are known. These include, among others:

• Megalonyx: The species of this genus were ground-dwelling giant sloth that lived in North and South America and became extinct only about 10,000 years ago.

• Sloths of the Caribbean Islands: In the Greater Antilles, the fossil remains of several sloth species were found, which weighed an estimated 20 to 70 kg. It is believed that these species have become extinct only about 10,000 years ago to 5000. In Puerto Rico lived Acratocnus odontrigonus, Cuba and Hispaniola megalocnus rodens Synocnus comes and Parocnus serus, the heaviest around 70 kg Type this group. Whether these animals were ground or tree dwellers, is unknown; one suspects that the lighter species at least partially lived on trees.